Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

Anonymous

I've been using Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for a year, and shortly after the warranty expired I noticed my Surface Pro 3 can only last about 1-2 hours after a full charge. At first I thought this was a problem with background process draining the battery so I disabled everything running in the background. It didn't helped. Then I found out about the powercfg utility and run powercfg /batteryreport on it, and this was the result:

A full charge capacity has degraded by over 80% in just few weeks and continue degrading. I tried to "recalibrate" the battery by doing full charge then full drain multiple times, and it didn't helped. Talk with Microsoft via chat support and they insist this was a software problem and reinstalled the driver and asked me to wait few days to see if things improve. Not only it didn't improved, but now my Surface can only last 30 minutes.

Few days after chat (today), I called Microsoft support and they were being extremely unhelpful. Insist that this was a software problem (which the chat support person already did) and it's "perfectly normal" for battery capacity to degrade. I insist that I've already done the software "fixes" and it didn't work and tell them this is definitely hardware problem, but the person on the phone tell me there's nothing I could do except to order the out of warranty exchange (which cost about $560 in my local currency).

Is there anything else I should do? My country has no Microsoft Store which I could take the machine for them to take a look. Phone/online support were the only option, and none of them could understand the issue.

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Anonymous

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your continued patience here. We have now completed our testing of the update and it has passed our quality assurance process.

The update, “System Firmware Update - 8/29/2016”, is now available to install from Windows Update.

Before installing this update, ensure that your Surface Pro 3 is plugged directly in to AC power using the standard AC power adapter (do not use the Surface Docking Station), disconnect any USB devices or external monitors, and check that Windows shows a 40% charge or greater when you hover over the icon in the taskbar before you begin.

Once you install the update, please select Restart now (do not shutdown). After your Surface restarts, please manually restart it a second time to complete the process. For more information, please see our Surface Pro 3 Battery FAQ article.

If you’re having trouble charging your Surface, you get a low-battery error, or your Surface turns off when you unplug it, the steps in our Surface battery won’t charge article can help you pinpoint the problem. Should you need any further assistance, please contact us.

Thanks again.

Greg

Updated 8/29/16.

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1,459 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-11-18T22:35:30+00:00

This is pretty sad. I paid over $2500 for my system and my battery died right after the one year warranty expired, support is telling me I have to dish out $450 to have a replacement or exchange, this is outrageous. I can't even update my computer because my battery does not even charge. I am very disappointed at Microsoft for their poor customer service regarding this issue.
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Anonymous

2016-11-15T21:22:15+00:00

all you can do is contact support and discuss with them.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13948/global-customer-service-phone-numbers
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Anonymous

2016-11-15T20:48:31+00:00

Oh, I am so jealous! My Surface Pro 3, purchased in July 2015, had the battery capacity start diminishing right after the 1 yr warranty expired. Within about a month, it got to the point that it doesn't think there is a battery (taskbar says 70% charge, plugged in, not charging), but if the power is unplugged it shuts down completely no warning. I had first tried installing the firmware update that supposedly fixed it, but it wouldn't update firmware. Upgraded to Windows 10 PRO, updated firmware, says it completed successfully, no change in battery problem. Complete wipe and reinstall to factory settings, still won't work on battery. Some pages I've come across say that the Power Cover will give you 2.5 hours of battery, but I have it, and it doesn't even give 1 second. GRRRR. Definitely re-thinking using Surfaces since the battery isn't replaceable.
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Anonymous

2016-11-15T20:34:19+00:00

Hi Barb,

Firstly thanks to you and all the other MVP's that had made every effort to understand the problem and mediate. My SP3 is 2 and a half years old, and about 6 months ago ran into the same battery problem. It got to a stage where if I unplugged the power, the battery was showing 3 - 4% within a few minutes - likewise if I plugged the power back in, the battery showed 100% after a few minutes. I haven't read every entry in this post, but enough to know that I was ready to dump my SP3 in the toilet. As a last resort, I did a full system repair / restore and I restored it to factory settings. Lo and behold it is like a brand new device out of the shop and the battery is just fine. (I have been able to run off one charge for the last three days). With this in mind, I can't help but think that this is not a battery or hardware related issue at all, but one of software. I have had to rebuild my entire OS, but rather that than have to buy a new overpriced SP4 or SP5. I am happy (albeit still rather peeved at MS). Thought I would mention this in the event any others want to try it.

Regards
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